FIRST DEFEAT OF THE SEASON

North Berwick Hawks 5 – 4 MYS Black Stripes (8Dec07)

The first defeat of the season today for the Black Stripes, following a disastrous opening 10 minutes with the team losing four early goals. A number of cracking corners from North Berwick put the Youngstars under real pressure, resulting in three of the four goals. The Youngstars struggled to get into the match in the first period and created very few chances.

The team played better in the second period, however, and pulled a goal back following a North Berwick corner. The ball was deflected in the box to Josh, who then passed wide to Dylan. Dylan bombed down the left hand side and hit a great shot that was blocked by the keeper - but Calum was in at the back post to volley the deflected ball high into the net. As usual, Mark played very well at the back, and was relied upon many times to win the last tackle and hammer the ball down the line towards Lennon and Dylan.

By the time the third quarter came around, the team were back to playing their normal good quality football. Dylan got on the scoresheet early on when the North Berwick keeper passed to him in error. He then calmly dribbled round the last defender and drilled the ball into the goals. The team’s third goal came from a brilliant pass from Josh in defence, where he fired the ball straight to Dylan’s feet. Dylan again got round the last defender and blasted home his second of the day. Sam played well in midfield with some well-timed tackles preventing North Berwick attacks. However, North Berwick still managed to create a few good chances with Kyle forced to make a string of great saves and Innes having to clear the ball out of the pitch on a couple of occasions.

Lennon and Harvey both did some great work in the final period, tracking back and winning essential tackles, with Kyle being called upon to make more strong saves. Morgan also played well, with his no-nonsense defending keeping North Berwick at bay. However, the North Berwick kids had some more brilliant corners, and one of these resulted in their fifth goal. Josh managed to block the ball but good pressure from the North Berwick forward allowed him to win the ball and tuck it under Kyle’s diving body. However, the Youngstars didn’t let their heads go down and Dylan managed to score the best goal of the game in the final minute. Josh won the ball in midfield, flicked it up into the air, then lobbed it over the North Berwick defence where Dylan was waiting. He let it bounce once, the fired a superb half-volley into the top corner for his hat-trick. In the end, this match was a good stretch for the kids today and they did very well to come back from a disappointing first 10 minutes to make the final score 5-4 to North Berwick.

Teamsheet: Kyle, Mark, Innes, Morgan, Josh, Sam, Harvey, Lennon, Dylan, Calum

Goalscorers: Calum, Dylan (3).